Davis Cup QF: Defending Champs Through in Five Thanks to Old Man Ferrero

Spain moved one step closer to defending it Davis Cup title thanks to one of its older hombres. Juan Carlos Ferrero, fresh off his quarterfinal run at Wimbledon, defeated Andreas Beck 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to send Spain to a home semifinal vs. Israel in September. With this win in Marbella, Andalusia, Spain improved to an astonishing 16-0 in its last sixteen home Davis Cup ties. None too shabby.

Ferrero took over the singles slot for Tommy Robredo, another older Spaniard who was justifiably replaced after a lackluster showing on Friday.

Tough to see a guy like Philipp Kohlschreiber play so well--winning two singles matches for Germany--and still see his country come away with an "L". In a thrilling battle between Friday's winners, Kohlschreiber outlasted Fernando Verdasco 8-6 in the fifth. Would be interesting to see if Kohlschreiber would have made a difference in the doubles, which for my money is ultimately where this tie was won for Spain.

Should Nicholas Kiefer have played in place of Beck? Even though I presumed that was going to happen. I didn't get to see Kiefer play doubles on Saturday, though, so maybe he didn't look too sharp. Beck, though generally impressive on Friday, had to have been emotionally spent after blowing a 2-1 lead against Changing things up worked well for Spain and the Czech Republic, so maybe it could've for Germany as well.

Germany has to be pretty happy with the effort though. Pushing the defending champs to five matches on hostile turf (both in Spain and on clay) should mean they can go back to Deutschland with their heads held pretty high.

And for Spain to win this tie without the services of either Rafael Nadal or David Ferrer is even more impressive. Tough to see anyone stopping them from repeating.